The present invention generally relates to avionics, and more particularly relates to flight management systems (FMSs), and even more particularly relates to combined electronic displaying of textual FMS and graphical map data.
In the past, designers of avionics displays and flight computer systems have endeavored to achieve a reduction in pilot workload. One area of concern has been the FMS, which typically requires a significant amount of xe2x80x9cheads-downxe2x80x9d time. This xe2x80x9cheads-downxe2x80x9d time occurs when the pilot is neither looking at the primary flight displays, nor out the wind screen, but instead is focused upon a task in an oblique direction, such as when using a typical FMS control display unit (CDU), which is an integrated keyboard and a textual display unit. One approach has been proposed in which a portion of the typical FMS textual information is displayed on a segment of a multi-functional display also containing a map display. A cursor is used to select textual information to be displayed on the map display segment. While these interactive dual format displays have clear advantages, they also have significant drawbacks.
The cockpit can become, at times, a very busy place. During take-off and approach, the workload on a pilot can be extreme. Since the proposed dual format displays are capable of showing only a limited amount of textual information, they still require the pilot to make reference to additional pages or displays. This additional effort, at an already busy time, is quite undesirable.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and apparatuses for displaying both textual FMS data, as well as graphical FMS maps.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved FMS display.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize a route window which simultaneously displays all textual information relating to a flight plan leg that is displayed on a graphical FMS map display.
It is an advantage of the present invention to reduce heads-down time and thereby enhance situational awareness by providing a single source for all textual information required for a flight plan leg.
It is another feature of the present invention to include a configurable route window size characteristic.
It is another advantage of the present invention to provide for increased control of the amount of textual information displayed at one time.
It is yet another feature of the present invention to include a configurable route window content characteristic.
It is yet another advantage of the present invention to provide for the capability of reducing pilot workloads at critical times, by permitting the route window to be configured in response to current events, such as weather, air traffic, phase of flight (take-off, approach, etc.) to show the most important and timely types of information required by the pilot.
The present invention is an apparatus and method for simultaneously displaying FMS textual data and FMS map data, which is designed to satisfy the aforementioned needs, provide the previously stated objects, include the above-listed features, and achieve the already articulated advantages. The present invention is carried out in a xe2x80x9cfixed format-lessxe2x80x9d manner in a sense that the undesirable constraints of a fixed format textual display segment have been greatly reduced.
Accordingly, the present invention is a multi-mode interactive FMS display which simultaneously displays FMS map data, as well as displays FMS textual data in a configurable route window.